V: THE "HACIENDA OF THE TREES"
Strange is fate! From two points, perhaps the width of the world apart,two lives begin their flow, and though their mutual currents bedeflected hither and thither by the winds of fortune, tides of chance,yet will they eventually meet, coalesce, and roll on together like twodrops that join running in down a window-pane.
Now between John Carleton, owner of some hundred thousand broad acres,and the three rapscallions of Las Bocas the only possible relation wouldappear to be that which could be established by a well-oiled gun.Between them and Lee Carleton, his pretty daughter, any relationwhatever would appear still more foreign. Yet--but let it suffice, forthe present, that just about the time the Three had gained almost to the_hacienda_ Carleton and his daughter had reined in their horses on thecrest of a grassy knoll that overlooked the buildings.
A long pause, during which neither spoke, gives time for her portrait.Rather tall for a girl and slender without thinness, her fine, erectshoulders and the lines of her lithe body lost nothing by her costume;riding-breeches of military cord, yellow knee-boots, man's cambric shirtwith a negligee collar turned down at the neck. Her features were smalland delicately cut; the nose piquant, slightly _retrousse_. Her eyes,large and brown and widely placed under a low broad brow, vividlycontrasted with her fair skin and tawny hair. The face, as a whole, waswonderfully mobile and expressive, almost molten in its swift responseto lively emotion. Just now, while she sat on gaze, it expressed thatcurious yearning, half pathetic, that is born of deep feeling.
"Oh, dad, isn't it beautiful!"
The sweep of her small hand took in the range rolling in long sunlitbillows; but her eyes were on the _hacienda_--_Hacienda de los Arboles_,named in the sonorous Spanish after the huge cottonwoods that lent itpleasant shade.
Built in a great square, its massive walls, a yard thick and twice theheight of a man, formed the back wall of the stables, adobe cottages,storehouses, and granaries on the inner side. It also lent one corner tothe house which rose above it to a second story. Pierced for musketry,with a watch-tower rising above its iron-studded gates, it was, in theold days, a real fort. Besides the long row that followed themeanderings of a dry water-course across the landscape, a cluster ofgiant cottonwoods raised their glossy heads within the compound, shadingwith checkered leafage the watering wells and house. Set amidst growingfields of corn and wheat at the foot of a range that loomed in violet,crimson, or gold, according to the hour, it was as pleasant a place asever a man looked upon and called his home.
Carleton smiled as she added, "I'd hate to have been brought up in ElPaso or any other prosy American city."
He might have replied that there were American cities she might findless prosy than El Paso. But he was well content to have her think asshe did.
His own gaze, overlooking the prospect, expressed the pride ofaccomplishment with which men survey their completed work; nor was hissatisfaction less because the buildings themselves were not of hiscreation. Coming here, sixteen years ago, with a nest-egg of two orthree thousand dollars, he had leased and let, bought and sold withYankee shrewdness; added acre to acre, flock to flock, until, at last,he was in position to buy Los Arboles from a "land-poor" Spanish owner.
To a man without imagination the fact that its foundations had been laidalmost four centuries ago by one of Cortes's _conquistadores_ might havemeant little. With Carleton it counted more than its broad acreage. Froma trove of old papers left by the former owner he had gathered many astory of siege and battle, scandal and intrigue, consummated within itsmassive walls. Instead of fairy-tales, he had told these to Lee duringher childhood, so that medieval atmosphere had penetrated her verybeing.
They seldom overlooked the _hacienda_, as now, without making someobservations anent its past. As in some vivid pageant, they saw the oldDons, their _senoras_, _senoritas_, savage brown retainers, in the midstof their fighting, working, loving, praying. By self-adoption, as itwere, Carleton, at least, had allied himself with them, had come tothink of himself as belonging to the family.
"Great old fellows they were!" Though he spoke musingly, now, withoutconnection, she instantly caught his meaning, knew he was harking back."Great old chaps! I was looking into one of our land titles the otherday, and the records read in princely fashion. 'Between the rivers suchand such, of a width that a man may ride in one day,' that was afavorite method of establishing boundaries. No paring of land likecheese rinds; everything done by wholesale; no haggling over a fewsquare leagues."
"And here comes one of them." Lee pointed her quirt at a horseman whohad just topped the opposite rise. "Doesn't he look it?"
Surely he did. The _charro_ suit of soft tanned deerskin with its_bolero_ jacket and tight pantaloons braided or laced with silver; thelithe figure under the suit; dark, handsome face, great Spanish eyesthat burned in the dusk of a gold-laced _sombrero_; the fine horse andMexican saddle heavily chased in solid silver; the gold-hilted _machete_in its saddle sheath under the rider's leg, even the rope _riata_ coiledaround the solid silver pommel, horse, rider, and trappings belonged inthat pageant of the past.
"It is Ramon Icarza," Carleton nodded. "He hasn't been here for a longtime." This he repeated in Spanish when the young man rode up.
"Attending to the herds and the horses, senor. As with you, the most ofour _peones_ have run away to the wars. We have left only a few_ancianos_ too feeble and stiff to be of much service. Still, with theaid of the women we manage. That last requisition for the"--his shrugwas eloquent in its disdain--"_cause_. You paid it?"
"Had to--or be confiscated." With a grin comical in its mixture ofamusement and anger, Carleton went on, "I raked up five thousand pesosof Valles's money and took it to him myself. And what do you think hesaid? 'I don't want that stuff. I can print off a million in a minute.You must pay me in gold.'"
Perhaps because humor has no place in the primitive psychology of hisrace, Ramon received the news with a black frown. "The devil take him!Yet you Americans are better treated than we, his countrymen. With us,he takes all. Those poor Chihuahua comerciantes!" His hands and eyebrowstestified to Valles's scandalous treatment of the merchants. "First hedemands a contribution to the _cause_. Those who refuse are foolish, forfirst he shoots them as traitors, then confiscates their goods. But thepoor devils who contribute, see you, fare little better; for with themoney he runs off a newspaper press he buys up the goods they have left.In the old days we used to curse the locusts, senor; but they, at least,left us our beasts and lands. Who would have thought, four years ago,that you and the senorita here and my venerable father would be reducedto become herders of cattle?"
"Oh, but it's lots of fun!" Lee's happy laugh bespoke sincerity. "I loveit out here. They will never be able to get me back in the house. Andthat reminds me that we're almost due there for lunch."
"You'll stay, of course, Ramon?" Pointing to a couple of mares withfoals they had brought in from a distant part of the range, Carletonadded, "There's still another over in the next valley. If you will takethese along, I'll get her."
Left to themselves, the young man and girl headed the mares toward the_hacienda_, riding sufficiently in rear to check the sudden, aimlessboltings of the foals. The helplessness of the little creatures touchedthe girl's maternal instinct, and though their stilts of legs, wabblyknees, long necks, and big heads were badly out of drawing, sheexclaimed like a true mother over their beauty.
"Oh, aren't they pretty!"
Ramon agreed--as he would had she called upon him to admire a Gilamonster. Not that he had always followed her lead. Close neighbors--thatis, as neighboring goes in range countries where distance is reckoned bythe hundred miles--their childhood had compassed more than the usualnumber of squabbles. Until the dawn of masculine instinct had bound himslave to her budding beauty, they had upset the peace and dignity ofmany a ceremonial visit by fighting like cat and dog. Lee knew, ofcourse, his mother and sister, and not until she had extracted the lastiota of family gossip did she bestow a siste
rly inspection on himselfand clothes. Having passed favorably on the material, fit, andtrimmings, she reached for his _sombrero_.
"You are quite the hacendado, now, Ramon, in that magnificent hat. Letme look at it. What a beauty!"
While she turned and twisted it, fingered the rich gold braid, examinedit with head slightly askew like a pretty bird, the natural glowintensified in Ramon's big dark eyes; a wave of color flowed through thegold of his skin. His mouth--too red and womanish for Anglo-Saxonstandards--drew into a tender smile.
According to the canons of fiction, this was wrong. A man with a blackor brown skin must reserve his admiration for women of his race. Yet,with singular disregard, for writer's law, Nature continued to weave forRamon her potent spells. The sunshine snared in Lee's hair, rose blushof her skin, her womanly contours, the fine molding of her limbs, thesweetness of youth, all the witcheries of form and color with whichNature lures her creatures to their matings, affected the lad just aspowerfully as if he had been born north of the Rio Grande.
On her part Lee ought to have resented his admiration. But here, again,Nature utterly ignored "best seller" conventions. Brought up amongMexicans, counting Ramon's sister her best friend, Lee felt no racialprejudice. Wherefore, like any other young girl possessed of normalhealth and spirits, she made the most of the situation. Aftersufficiently admiring the hat, she tried it on.
"How does it look?"
As she faced him, saucily smiling from under the enormous brim, therewas no mistaking the "dare." Whether or no the custom obtains in Mexico,Ramon caught the implication.
"Pretty enough to--kiss!"
With the word he reached swiftly for her neck, but caught only emptyair. Ducking with a touch of the spur, she shot from under his hand.
The next second he was after her. Along the shallow valley for ahalf-mile she led, then, whirling just as he rode alongside, she shotback along the ridge. At the end he overtook her, and, anticipating herwhirl, caught her bridle rein. Leaning back, however, flat on herbeast's back, laughing and panting, she was still out of his reach; andwhen he began to travel, hand over hand, along the bridle, she leapeddown on the opposite side and dodged behind a lone _sahuaro_.
Sure of her now, he followed. But, dodging like a hare around the_sahuaro_, she came racing back for the horses; might possibly havegained them and made good her escape, if, glancing back over hershoulder, she had not seen Ramon stumble, stop, then clasp his rightankle.
"Oh, is it sprained?" she cried, running back. Then, as, reachingsuddenly, he caught her, she burst out, "Cheat! oh, you miserablecheat!"
That all is fair in love and war, however, goes in all languages, andwhile she punctuated the struggle with customary objections wherebyyoung maids enhance the value of a kiss, there was no anger in herprotests. Wrestling her back and down, he got, at last, the laughingface upturned in the hollow of his arm; had almost reached her lips,when, with force that sent Lee to the ground, he was seized and thrownviolently against the horse.
In the excitement of the chase they had completely forgotten Carleton,who had viewed its beginnings from the opposite ridge. By self-adoptionhe had almost, as before said, identified himself with the Spanishstrain that had flowed for centuries through the _patios_ and compoundof Los Arboles. He had even come to think in Spanish; in custom andmanner was almost Mexican. But in moments of anger habit gives place toinstinct. The instinct that first formed and later preserved the tribe,pride of race, overpowered friendship. In one second the young Mexican,whom he had regarded for years almost as a son, was transmuted into thedespised "greaser" of the border.
"You--you--" Choking with anger, eyes bits of blue flame, he strode atRamon, fist bunched to strike.
But the blow did not fall, for, scrambling up again, Lee seized his armfrom behind. "Oh, dad! dad!" Despite his struggles, she clung like acat, defeating his efforts to shake her off. "Oh, dad! It was only a bitof fun! all my fault! I put on his hat! Please don't!"
If the young fellow had flinched, perhaps Carleton would have struck.But, head erect, he quietly waited, and presently Carleton ceasedstruggling.
"All right! I'll let him go--this time. But, remember"--bringing hisclenched fist in a heat of passion into the palm of the other hand, heglared at the young man--"remember! when this girl is kissed--it will beby a man of her own breed. Get off my land!" After helping Lee to mount,he vaulted into his own saddle and rode away, driving the mares andfoals before them.
In accordance with before-mentioned precedents, Ramon ought to havefolded his arms and hissed a threat through gritted teeth. Instead, hestood very quietly, his face less angry than sad, watching them go. Hislittle nod, in its firmness, would have become any young American; wentvery well with his thought.
"We shall see."
Mounting, he rode away to the northward, and not till he had coveredmany miles did he rein in his beast, so suddenly that it fell back onits haunches. His dark face expressed vexation mixed with alarm."Maldito! I forgot to warn them that Colorados had been seen east of therailroad. I must go back."
On their part, Lee and her father rode on toward the _hacienda_. Thoughhe glanced at her from time to time, it was always furtively, for with aman's dislike of scenes he made no reference to that which had justpassed. Nevertheless, it filled his mind. Man-like, he had watched herdevelop into womanhood with scarcely a thought for her future. If he hadgiven the subject any consideration he would probably have concludedthat, sooner or later, she would choose a suitable mate from thehundreds of American miners, railroad men, ranchers, and engineers thathad swarmed in the state of Chihuahua before the revolution.
But with the clear vision of after sight he now saw that he hadunconsciously depended on the race pride which had just manifesteditself in himself to prevent her from contracting a mesalliance. Now,with consternation, he faced the truth that racial pride is masculine;contrary to both the feminine instinct and nature's scheme of things.
"I was a fool!" he berated himself. "A damned fool! She will have to gonorth--live in the States for a while."
These and similar thoughts were whirling through his mind when they cameon a band of his horses at pasture under charge of an _anciano_, awithered old _peon_, whose age and infirmities had estopped him fromjoining the exodus to the wars. After cautioning the old fellow not toallow the animals to stray too far, Carleton plunged again into deepmeditation.
Had he not been thus preoccupied he would probably have long agodiscovered the five horsemen who were following at a distance, using thenatural cover afforded by the rolling land; for he always rode with apowerful binocular in his holster, and often swept with it the prospect.Several times the glass would have shown him a row of heads behind thenext ridge in rear. As it was, he had ridden to the crest of the risefrom which they had looked down on the _hacienda_ before habit asserteditself. He had no sooner leveled the glasses than an exclamation burstfrom his lips. "My God!"
"What is it, dad?" Lee swung in her saddle, looking back at him.
"Raiders! They are attacking Francisco! He has nothing but his staff!He's fighting them like an old lion! My God, they're chopping him withtheir machetes." It came out of him in staccato phrases. "Race in andsend out Juan, Lerdo, and Prudencia with rifles! Stay there! Don't dareto follow!"
Digging in his spurs, he galloped away. For a moment the girl hesitated.Her eyes went to the _hacienda_, still half a mile away, then back toher father racing madly down the slope. There was no time to go forhelp! Loosening the pistol in her holster, she drove in her spurs andgalloped after.
From Carleton's first appearance till the girl screamed all had passedso quickly that the Three could only sit and gape. From their originalintent to rob Carleton it was a far cry to the reconstructed impulse tosuccor and save him, and it speaks well for them that they accomplishedthe revolution as soon as they did.
The scream had not passed unnoticed by the Colorados. The leader, whohad turned to ride on, swung his beast, looked, then, as the girldropped from the saddl
e to her knees beside the wounded man, drove inhis spurs and galloped toward her. Heedless of her own danger, Lee wastrying to stanch with her handkerchief the bloodflow from Carleton'schest, so lost in her agonized grief that she did not look up till theColorado leaped down and seized her.
In this world there are savages who would have respected, for the timeat least, her white grief. But this was the man who had tortured theminer and his _peones_; driven the latter naked through spiky cactusafter he had cut the soles off their feet. She sprang up when he seizedher, and as she fought bitterly, beating away his black, evil face withher little fists, his strident laughter mingled with her wild sobbingand carried to Bull behind the ridge.
For three days this man's boast had rung in his brain: "We've killedyour men, outraged your women!" But though anger blazed within him, histone was icy cold. "Look after the others. I'll 'tend to him!"
He had already pulled his rifle from the sling under his leg. Raising itnow, he lined the sights, the same sights that had directed a ballthrough the brain of Livingstone's horse. While Lee writhed and twistedin the Colorado's arms, he dared not shoot. He waited until, at thedouble crack of his companions' rifles, two of the other Coloradospitched headlong from their saddles. Then, as their leader paused tolook and, with a swift wrench, Lee tore loose and let daylight betweenthem, the rifle spoke, sent its bullet whistling through his brain.
"Keep after them!" Bull called back as he rode on over the ridge.
But already Jake and Sliver's rifles were barking like hungry dogs.Trained to a hair in guerrilla warfare, the remaining Colorados hadspurred their beasts behind the horse herd. At the first shot the bandhad stampeded, and now, urged on by the yells of the fugitives, who rodecrouched on their horses' necks, the scared animals coursed swiftly downthe valley.
"The gall of them! _Our_ horses!" Repeating his former observation,Sliver would have ridden after.
But Jake caught his bridle. His bleak eyes were scintillating likesunlit icicles. His lean, avid face quivered with subdued ferocity."Don't be a damn fool! They're only using 'em for cover! We'll shootalong this side of the ridge an' catch 'em at the end of the valley!"
Meanwhile Bull rode on down the slope. After a surprised stare thatshowed her rescuers to be Americans, Lee had knelt again beside herfather. As before said, Bull was no beauty. His black beard, bushybrows, hot red eyes, drink-blotched face, were of themselves sufficientto frighten a woman. Yet when she looked up sympathy illumined hiscountenance till it shone in her distressed sight as a clear lampradiating human feeling. Without fear or doubt she turned to him forhelp.
"It's my father! I'm afraid--Can't you do something?"
So far Carleton had lain with his eyes closed. Now he opened them andspoke in detached whispers as Bull knelt by his side. "You're--American.I told her not to follow. Don't bother--with me. I'm shot--through lungsand stomach--bleeding inside. Get Lee--back to the house."
"Plenty of time," Bull soothed him. As a crackle of rifle-fire turnedloose in the distance, followed by sudden silence, he added, "That 'ullbe the last o' the Colorados. I'll fix you a bit, an' when my fellowscome back we'll jest pack you home."
With a plainsman's skill in crude surgery, he tore up Carleton's shirtto make a pad and bandage which he twisted with a stick till theblood-flow stopped. This was no more accomplished before Jake and Sliverrode up, driving the horses ahead.
"They won't cut no more soles offen people's feet," Jake answered Bull'squestioning look.
"Fine and dandy." Bull nodded. "You, Jake, rope a fresh horse outer theband an' ride like hell to the railroad an' wire El Paso for a doctor."
"No!" Lee eagerly suggested. "Wire the American Club at Chihuahua. Thesedreadful days all gringos help one another."
Freshly horsed, five minutes thereafter, Jake galloped away--but notbefore, cold, crafty, laconic, dissolute gambler as he was, he had lefta comforting word in the girl's ear. "Don't you be skeered, Miss. I'llbring out a doctor, if I have to ride inter El Paso an' raid ahospital."
As he went out of sight over the next roll Sliver, with the girl's aid,lifted the wounded man up to Bull in the saddle. So for the second timewithin three days did the giant rustler bear like a child in his arms a_gringo_ victim of the Mexican revolution. To the leaven that had beenworking within him was now added the most powerful influence that can bebrought to bear on a man--a woman's heartbroken sobbing.
Over the Border: A Novel Page 5